


On the issue of Mortality

by kitkat1003



Category: LEGO Monkie Kid
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Wukong becomes a Dad, Wukong has a successor now but what does that mean, help him
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:40:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28346277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitkat1003/pseuds/kitkat1003
Summary: MK chose to be mortal, to be vulnerable, for the time being, and Monkey King is fine with that.On the surface, at least.  Now he has a successor, one that he likes, and he’s vulnerable????Yeah, he’s never going to sleep easy again.(Or, 11 chapters through season 1 about Monkey King, and anxiety his successor gives him.  Who knew being a-dad- would be so hard?)
Relationships: Qi Xiaotian | MK & Sūn Wùkōng | Monkey King
Comments: 22
Kudos: 100





	1. Chapter 1: Picking a successor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Or “Look, I’m gonna come clean. Um...I’ve been kinda watching you”)

When Sun Wukong—the Monkey King—decides he needs a successor, it isn’t an easy decision. For one, he refuses to admit why. Because that would mean confronting it all and he doesn’t want to. 

He needs a successor because he wants one. Who doesn’t want to retire? It’s not like he’s spent hundreds of thousands of years in technical retirement, waiting for the Demon Bull King to return. No, he’s been...super busy. Yeah. Turning Flower Fruit Mountain into a paradise has totally taken him…forever, and, like, he’s got lots of stuff to do. He watches TV, once humans get electricity figured out. Gets a computer too, once those things start popping up. He gets a lawyer or two, yknow, keeping up with the times.

He’s... _ super busy _ . He  _ definitely _ deserves a retirement.

So all that’s left is find a successor. Easy, right?

_ Well.... _

He actually starts looking when he hears whispers that the Demon Bull family is starting to get close to figuring out how to lift his staff. So about a hundred years before Demon Bull King actually escapes.

He finds a few kids he thinks might work, but nothing  _ happens _ , anyway, so there’s no point in interrupting their boring normal lives for nothing. Besides, he doesn’t really see any of them with the spark of... _ something _ that he wants in his successor in any of them

He watches them grow. Child to teen to adult, he watches, and then he leaves before they get too old because he doesn’t want to see the headstones.

He doesn’t understand why they have to be human. Why they have to be mortal. Why they have to be able to die.

Why he has to  _ watch _ them die.

Years and years pass. He gets lax, when looking for a successor. Lax when it comes to keeping an eye on the Demon Bull family.

He does, on occasion, watch the town where his staff is. It’s a pretty populace place, always buzzing with some sort of activity, which is both fun and boring.

One night, he watches a kid— _ no older than 13, he thinks, since he’s gotten used to watching humans grow and can gauge it pretty well _ —sprint down the street in the rain, wearing nothing but a ratty old hoodie, a shirt, shorts, torn up shoes, and a headband so dirty that even  _ he  _ can’t discern the original color.

There are three other figures chasing him, and he ducks into an alley as they sprint past. Monkey King watches as the kid settles down, sitting in the alley, and pulling something out from beneath his hoodie.

A puppy.

“Hey there, little guy,” the kid’s voice is soft, and he scritches the tiny pup behind the ears. “Sorry I couldn’t get your siblings, but they’d already been thrown in the lake—” the look on the kid’s face is nothing short of heartbreaking. 

Monkey King has plans for the group of thugs he saw earlier, if that’s what they were doing. Humans. 

“But hey, managed to save you, huh? I’ll bring you to a shelter in the morning. Someone will take you home and you’ll get loved to death.” Monkey King rolls his eyes at the saccharine display, but he wonders.

There isn’t a lot of crime in this city, with its advancements. What’s a kid doing outside this late at night?

“I’d take you home with me, but mine’s more of a hovel than a place to live. You can still see it, though! C’mon,” the kid gets up, stumbling a little, and Monkey King notices that he’s favoring one leg, that the elbow of one of the sleeve’s of his hoodie is wet.

He follows.

The kid’s house is literally a shack made of a metal sheet wedged between an alley wall. There’s a ‘bench’ that’s a slab of rock placed on top of more rocks, where a well loved sketchbook sits.

The kid sits on the bench, setting the puppy down beside him as he flips open his sketchbook.

“I’m gonna draw you, so I don’t forget, kay?” He pats the pup on the head, and then, using the smallest, most worn down pencil Monkey King has ever seen, he slowly carves out the puppy’s features, getting the soft tones of fur. He keeps squinting, but Monkey King thinks that’s because all he has is the light of the lamppost for his vision.

This kid...is pretty darn good.

Monkey King watches for way longer than he would like to admit, and then watches as the kid pulls out a very worn blanket-substitute, curling around the puppy beneath it.

He frowns, but isn’t sure what to do about it.

So he leaves, and makes sure those thugs learn a thing or two about treating animals with respect.

* * *

This kid just keeps popping up in Monkey King’s peripherals.

He likes to people watch, and the kid will just appear from nowhere. He’ll be running down the street, hanging out with this girl who looks about 3 economic classes above him. They’ll go to the arcade and play for hours, and she’ll pay for practically everything.

He decides he likes her, if she’s nice enough to do that for the kid. Plus, he feels a familiar energy coming off of her, something he trusts.

They typically end their day at a noodle shop. Pigsy’s? The kid always pays there, with coins of various sizes. The girl, when the kid isn’t looking, will slip the cook some more money. They get steaming hot bowls of ramen, harass the cook, and eventually get half chased out, laughing all the while.

“You know you can stay with me, right?” The girl says, one day, when Monkey King is people watching (read: eavesdropping on their conversation. It’s like his new favorite TV show, at this point). Kid rolls his eyes.

“Mei, c’mon, your relationship with your folks is as strained as mine! I wouldn’t want you to end up like me. Besides, I’m fine!” he insists with the grin Monkey King has grown accustomed to seeing on Kid’s face. 

The information Monkey King gains from those two sentences is certainly something, and he ponders on Mei, the girl who spends her days as far away from home as possible.

Mei frowns.

“You still won’t show me where you’re staying. Or explain why your clothes are all torn up!” She pokes him in the chest, and the Kid shrugs.

“Cause you wouldn’t like either of those things! I can take care of myself! Promise.” He rocks back and forth on his feet, all smiles.

Mei fixes him with a glare, before she sighs, relenting. “Fine. But, if you won’t take my hospitality, you get my undying loyalty _ and  _ free stuff!” She whips out a brand new red winter coat. 

Kid takes it slowly.

“It’s getting colder out!” She explains. “And red just isn’t my color, you know?”

Kid slowly pulls the jacket against his chest, like he doesn’t know what to do with it, and then he smiles. This one is smaller. Less performative. Monkey King didn’t realize that he’d been watching the kid to be able to tell the difference, but it’s not too hard to see. Kid uses big smiles like a cloak, to hide what’s underneath. The smaller ones-those are like the slivers of sunlight shooting out from an eclipse. Wukong finds he prefers the smaller ones.

Kid wraps his arm around Mei’s shoulders.

“Thanks, Mei.”

* * *

The days get colder, and Kid is still in that shack. Monkey King finds out that Kid doesn’t steal for money. Instead, he does little odd jobs for short change, and then looks for coins people have dropped. Apparently, the city’s wealth has made people more loose with their change.

Mei drags him to warm places as often as she can, but apparently this time of year she has a lot of responsibilities, or “social events,” as she calls them, so she can’t be around as much.

Kid doesn’t seem to mind, shivering through the nights, curling himself as tight as possible with that jacket and shitty blanket, and Monkey King doesn’t know why he even cares, but...

He’s not cruel. It isn’t pleasant to watch a kid suffer.

And then, Kid gets  _ sick. _ Like, delirious, fever sick, and he’s not getting better.

And Monkey King has told himself, a  _ million  _ times, that he would let Kid figure his own life out, but he ends up picking Kid up anyway, depositing him at the ever familiar noodle shop.

The cook drags the boy inside, and Monkey King doesn’t see Kid on the streets after that.

Good.

* * *

Kid starts working at the noodle shop, apparently, and he lives above the shop. Slowly, he accrues random objects. Sketchbooks, games, figurines,  _ Monkey King comics? _ He watches the  _ show _ near religiously, and Monkey King is both flattered and weirded out.

A super fan, huh? Okay then.

And when he isn’t working, or watching “Monkey King: The Animated Series,” or reading Monkey King comics, he’s begging the resident bookworm, Tang, for stories, which he then sketches out.

Monkey King actually goes through the sketchbook once, when Kid’s asleep. Yup, Kid’s really, really good at this. Monkey King actually thinks about stealing a drawing, but that would be both very obvious and also stupid.

So he lets it go. He ought to look for his successor, anyway. He hears the Demon Bull family is getting close.

He leaves Kid to his life and moves on to his own.

* * *

He can’t find a successor. Somehow. It’s like every person in this city ( _ and it would have to be in this city, because you need to be close to the staff in some regard if you want to have a connection with it. Being born near it, living near it-makes it easy for the energy, the chi, to find you _ ) doesn’t want anything to do with hero business. The kids he considers are too small, the adults too...boring.

And he’s getting pretty frustrated here, because he thinks he might just have to fight the Demon Bull King  _ all over again _ , which,  _ ugh. _

And then, it clicks.

He’s watching Kid drive around town, delivering orders, and somehow the kid steers towards the construction site. Toward the staff.

Of  _ course. _

God, it was literally staring him in the face. He feels kind of dumb, now that it hits him, but whatever. Not like anyone’s around to tease him about it.

He watches Kid waltz towards danger, music in his headphones too loud to notice the literal demon family, until Kid opens his eyes and  _ sees _ the whole demon army there, and hoo boy, is this comical.

Monkey King wonders if they’ll succeed this time, in lifting his staff. They certainly seem confident. He’s kind of curious, kind of bored. The whole ‘take our rightful place as rulers of this world’ schtick is super annoying, and Red Son’s voice is grating.

The light show is pretty nice, though, and then.

_ Then. _

Demon Bull King’s a lot smaller than he remembers, but his voice is the same, as is his attitude. Monkey King can feel Kid shaking and takes a quick sweep of the area. Seems his successor is right above Red Son.

He smirks to himself, not that anyone can see considering he’s a bird right now. 

This is going to be _ hilarious. _

* * *

When Kid touches the staff, Monkey King isn’t prepared for the feeling he gets.

It’s like he’s been the single Sun in an endless galaxy, surrounded by darkness, when suddenly another star appears from nowhere, throwing him into orbit with it. The galaxy shifts, the light doubles, the darkness recedes.

Monkey King’s own center,  _ his _ sun, feels red hot, warm, and tempered by years of life, with a spark of yellow and white in its center. Kid’s is bright, brilliant golden yellow, more white than any color, bursting with energy.

That energy gets put to work pretty quickly, as the Kid fumbles his way out of the demon’s den, and Monkey King soars after him, watching the escape with a smile.

* * *

He doesn’t properly meet Kid until he gets shot all the way to Flower Fruit mountain. After Kid escapes Red Son, he panickily tells his friends what’s going on and tries to get there on his own.

Well, all the way is a bit much. Maybe Monkey King had to catch Kid and fly him there, because Kid was looking half dead and Monkey King was a little worried, but that’s beside the point. He leaves Kid on the shore, and follows him when Kid gets up.

He isn’t expecting the frustration, when he can’t be found, but he supposes that’s his cue.

Getting stepped on is unpleasant. Guess Kid doesn’t like bugs.

God, the look on Kid’s face, when it hits him that Monkey King’s been watching him! If he could frame a memory, that would be it. Hoo,  _ boy,  _ is that going to be replaying in his head for a while. Kid seems more bewildered than anything else, and the idea of being Monkey King’s successor doesn’t sit well with him.

Which, Monkey King doesn’t get that. Who  _ wouldn’t _ want to be taught by him?

But maybe he overestimates the kid’s spunk, his confidence, because waving off his worries doesn’t spur him on; rather, it seems to deflate him.

Ugh. Why is being a teacher difficult? It’s not like  _ his _ teacher had a hard time with him, right?

Distantly, he thinks he can hear his master shouting at him. He hops off his cloud, says just the right thing to get Kid pumped up, and watches him race off.

He considers just sitting back and not watching, but then, that wouldn’t be any fun, would it?

* * *

He isn’t actually sure what having a successor means, really. How much their powers, their lives, would mirror his own. A part of him was terrified by the prospect—could he even be known as anything special, if he was no longer one of a kind?

But there’s also something quite  _ exciting _ about this. The idea that your life is being rewritten, the story unfinished and yet also repeating itself. The Demon Bull King is on the loose, with his army and family, trying to take over the world.

And only one person can stop him. The Monkey King.

Kid’s powers are volatile. He can feel them flare up from time to time, wildly flickering out of control. A lack of self confidence, that might be causing it. A part of him is annoyed by that, a part of him is relieved. Far better to have to teach someone to believe in themselves than teach them humility. He’s pretty sure  _ he _ hasn’t learned that latter lesson all the way yet.

Kid vanishes into the Demon Bull King’s chest, where the staff lies, and for a moment, the new sun vanishes. Monkey King feels the cold rush of space in its absence, and feels panic, even though he’s only known this warmth for a few hours.

But then, it bursts back into existence, as a familiar stone drops from the Demon Bull King’s chest, cracking open, and, well, it’s history being written the same way over and over again, isn’t it?

Kid has a flair for silliness, childish maneuvers. He likes to have fun, and that’s the best part of the powers they share. To be invincible, to have fun while saving the day. 

It’s a repeat, until, well, it isn’t.

The blow Kid takes makes Monkey King wince. The body becoming invulnerable takes time. It doesn’t just immediately  _ show up _ . Every second, Kid’s body is absorbing and meshing with the powers thrust upon it, but that doesn’t mean getting hit a mile by a guy twenty times your size doesn’t still  _ hurt _ , at this point.

But Monkey King knows this is what has to happen. Because heroes aren’t heroes if they never feel pain, never get hit.

_ Heroes,  _ he thinks, as Kid tears himself from the wall he’s embedded in, as Kid stands, eyes ablaze,  _ are heroes when they get hit and they  _ **_get back up._ **

And Kid sure as hell does.

“I’m the Monkey Kid!” He shouts, like a battle cry, like a challenge, and Monkey King smirks. Monkey Kid, huh? It suits him. And then, Kid slams the staff on the ground, and the world shifts.

A part of him is kind of jealous. How come  _ he _ never got a mech?! Has that been a thing this entire time? Another part is in awe of this Kid’s creativity, ability, at such a young age.

And seeing DBK get trounced again certainly keeps the jealous part of him quiet.

Kid’s got a nice group of friends. Reminds him of his journey days, him and a rag tag group of idiots going around wreaking havoc and learning moral lessons at the end of it. He’s glad Kid isn’t alone or on the streets anymore. A strong foundation leads to a stronger ability to grow.

Well, he’d better get some sort of training regimen ready. Or, at least, start thinking of some things to do to train this kid. He’s sure at some point Kid is going to bug him for a lesson or two.

Somehow, the thought doesn’t bother him as much as he thinks it should.


	2. Chapter 2: Whether weather whether weather, whether you're invulnerable or not!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Hey, I’ll have you know that I can control my powers now! The only downside is I’m not invincible anymore, sooo I could die.”
> 
> “WHAT?!”
> 
> Same, Pigsy. Same.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait between chapters! Most of these will be pretty short, depending on what I think I can do with each episode. Monkey King only shows up in like...3 episodes? I believe? I don't know if I should count cameos where he doesn't do anything. Either way, some chapters will be pretty short. Chapter 10 (for episode 9) is a doozy lol. But we'll get to that later.  
> Follow me on tumblr @kitkat1003!!!

Monkey King doesn’t do much, when it comes to his successor. Not at first.

Sure, he watches the Kid from time to time, just to see what’s going on. Which isn’t creepy, not at all, it’s just...well, how else is he supposed to check on Kid? Besides, he’s not watching him 24/7, and he can tell when the Kid is in trouble now, from the flare of power he feels whenever Kid is using the staff or some other ability.

Sometimes, though, there’s no fight. Like when he lets Mei shoot rockets at him. Comical as it is, he can tell Kid is letting all this power get to his head.

But hey, why not? Kid beat DBK, let him have a little fun. Monkey King isn’t going to knock him for that, not when he did much worse back in his day.  _ Way  _ worse

Yeah...he really had an arc, didn’t he.

He lets it go until he feels a massive flare, one that definitely isn’t controlled. He summons nimbus and heads off, and finds Kid in a crater of his own making, looking lost.

Then, Kid tries to shove the whole “stopping the bad guys” thing onto him, and, like,  _ hello?? _ He gave Kid the staff for a reason. He’s retired. Totally, definitely retired.

“Every time I try to do something I just gunk everything up! Something’s wrong...” There’s something deeper to those words, more vulnerable and hurt than Monkey King is ready for. He isn’t Kid’s dad.

Wait, does Kid even  _ have _ a dad? Is that something he needs to be concerned about? Whatever, the Kid’s at least eighteen, he’s an adult. Adults don’t need dads. Monkey King didn’t need one, just look at him. He’s the great Sun Wukong, Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the  _ Monkey King _ . Who needs parents?

Monkey King gets up, hops on the Kid’s shoulders to get a closer look, as well as groom the kid a little, because his hair is a mess. Humans have all these advancements with soap and showers and they can’t even get their hair clean. Clearly, monkeys have it figured out. Nothing gets someone cleaner than a good grooming. And hey, he finds a little snack in there!

He uses his golden vision of his for a second as he grooms Kid, and, yup.

There’s the problem.

Making the Kid freak out a little is all for fun, but the root of the issue is something Monkey King didn’t want to have to deal with. A general lack of martial arts skill is easy, you just teach them the basics and work from there. What’s wrong with Kid is going to take a lot  _ more _ work,  _ emotional  _ work, and Monkey King didn’t think he’d have to expend that sort of energy for this.

The issue, of course, is simple.  _ Lack of self confidence. _

“I have self confidence!”

“Nope. You’re just loud.” And that’s the thing, Monkey King understands. He was always loud but he was confident not long after. Then again, he got his powers gradually. Poor Kid has them all at once, probably hard to find the confidence for all of that out of nowhere.

Jeez. Why’d he have to pick the Kid with baggage?

Fake it till you make it is what Kid says, and he wants to scream, because that i _ sn’t how it works. _ If it was, then everyone could use the staff. It takes a specific breed of  _ something _ that Monkey King knows the Kid has, but isn’t letting out. Self confidence, at its core, comes from a strong foundation. If Kid doesn’t have that, then they have to start from scratch, which takes time.

And he’s not that annoyed, he’s willing to wait, but the Kid isn’t. And, sure, yeah, there’s the thing with Red Son (and holy shit,  _ Red Son? _ That brat is still around? He’s not using  _ the _ fire, but still) and the Kid’s friends, but they would be fine! Probably. He doesn’t think they’re that incompetent.

But the Kid isn’t satisfied with that so he insists, and Monkey King pulls out a card he doesn’t want to play.

Control over your powers for the price of invincibility. Seriously, if it were him, he’d never. He likes living, thanks. But then again, this Kid is apparently loyal to a fault, because not two seconds after he gives out the idea the Kid is taking it.

And he’s confident, when he seals away the Kid’s powers, but inside he’s terrified.

Suddenly, this Kid can get hurt, can die. This Kid could get hit by a car or smashed by a demon or fall to a host of any other preventable death scenarios because he’s vulnerable now.

And the thing is, Kid doesn’t seem to care? As if the idea of facing unknown horrors with the added bonus of being able to die is just a regular Tuesday, nothing to worry about. Which, that is so, so weird, and startling and Monkey King is a little proud that he picked a student so selfless, so willing to face mortality for the sake of keeping others safe.

But is it even selflessness or a lack of self worth? A lack of self confidence is bad enough, but he doesn’t even know if Kid thinks he’s got value and that’s far more concerning to him than it ought to be.

He’s also got a lot of anxiety now, because he has to watch this Kid, to make sure he doesn’t die randomly. Great.

He flies the Kid to the weather tower, because time is of the essence, and he watches. Every wrong step the Kid takes, he tenses. Every slip up, as Bull Clones go flying and chase after him, as Red Son rushes him—Sun Wukong clenches his fists and physically stops himself from jumping in. He’s retired. Kid’s gotta learn to clean up his own messes.

Kid is actually pretty good at using the staff to block blows. Offensive fighting with it is slow going, though, and Monkey King files that away for plans of future training. He watches the Kid run towards the control panel and the Bull Clones close in, and, for a split second, he feels a little flare.

Golden vision. It flickers in the Kid’s eyes and he doesn’t know what the Kid sees, but Monkey King is sure it’s enough.

Or maybe not, as the Kid gets dog piled on by Bull Clones, Red Son jumping on top of the pile.

Monkey King holds his breath, wondering if he should step in— _ because he knows Kid needs to learn but what’s the point of learning if you die in the process _ —and then.

_ Then. _

He lets out a sigh of relief and heads out as lightning strikes the staff, watching the Kid duck behind the control panel to avoid the shock, the explosion. Smart.  _ He _ always used brute force. Good to know Kid has a head on those shoulders that have more use than just a battering ram.

He vanishes into the horizon as the skies clear, back to Flowering Fruit Mountain. Once there, he takes a deep breath, eats a few peaches. Lays back on his cloud and grooms a monkey or two to try and destress.

It doesn’t work. Dammit. His successor is mortal and vulnerable. This is going to add, like, 5 times the effort he thought he would have to put into training this kid. He has to be careful. He has to be cautious. He can’t just throw things at the kid and expect him to be fine.

Okay. This is fine. Is it? Maybe. Probably not.

Because if the Kid is going to really take up his mantle, he’s going to have to deal with the enemies that come with it. Which means dangerous demons, creatures Monkey King doesn’t dare name, all sorts of dangers that can easily kill someone, if that someone isn’t invulnerable.

He has to give the Kid space, can’t smother him, doesn’t want to. But how is he supposed to breathe easy when his successor can die any time?

Clones, maybe? But those always come back to mess with him if he keeps them around for too long. And he’s an easily bored guy, his clones need action. He doesn’t think babysitting will make them happy.

Ugh, he needs a nap. If he can even find it in himself to sleep, with all these thoughts and questions.

He’ll figure it out. He always does, in the end.


	3. Duplicity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Pretty good, pretty good?! That’s not good enough!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS CHAPTER IS SOMEHOW LONGER THAN THE CHAPTER PREVIOUS DESPITE THIS EPISODE NOT HAVING MONKEY KING IN IT AND I DONT KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED 
> 
> (also I tried very hard to strike the balance of Monkey King's cavalier attitude without making him too mean fsdjdshajs)

Monkey King doesn’t tell Kid to come and see him, nor does he actively make Flower Fruit Mountain uninviting, but it takes longer than he expects to hear his staff slam onto sand. He supposes he should have expected that, as just a cursory look of the Kid tells him that his successor is the type to do absolutely everything on his own.

He purposely doesn’t go to check on Kid, purposefully holds back, because he’s been getting too close. Watching the Kid from afar at all hours of the day—he’s Sun Wukong! He has better things to do than to just semi-stalk a full grown mortal adult. 

Kid’s an adult, he can decide whether or not he wants Monkey King’s help. Even when Monkey King feels those little flares that mean Kid is using his powers, even when his stupid brain worries for some reason, even then he stays back at Flower Fruit Mountain and takes it easy. If Kid needs help, he’ll ask.

_ Won’t he? _

He should be concerned by how long it takes for Kid to reach out, but he’s made it absolutely clear to himself that he won’t be getting attached to his successor. It’s really the best for the both of them. Kid looks at Monkey King as if he’s God and Monkey King doesn’t see that hero worship fading anytime soon. On top of that, he just doesn’t need a mortal hanging around. It’s just asking for one of them to get hurt.

By one of them, he means he. Because Monkey King, despite his best efforts, has a soft spot for mortals. Triptaka was bad enough, he misses his master daily, but to add more to that roster? Never.

He knows he’s been getting too close, too protective, so he pulls back, stops people-watching, stays away from the mortal world, lets Kid handle it.

A few weeks pass before he feels his staff hit sand and he waits patiently for Kid to come rushing in. And he does, practically tripping over himself as he heads into Monkey King’s inner sanctum, and the first thing Monkey King smells is blood.

He jumps off of his cloud and watches Kid run over as something like terror tremors up his spine, because he hasn’t smelt blood in years. It brings back too many memories, memories of his master stolen by demons and threatened with death over and over and Monkey King coming in just in time, but this time he didn’t even  _ do _ anything and Kid comes over smelling of blood and Monkey King _ worries. _

Kid has a bandage on his face and a once-over reveals a quite few injuries on the Kid, as if he’d been in a fight a few days prior. That deep seated fear settles in his chest like a weight, and he slaps on a grin and waves lazily, bag of peach chips in hand.

“Hey! What’s up?” he calls out.

Kid holds the staff like it’s a shield. Monkey King wonders if Kid’s scared of him. The thought bothers him.

“Um, hey, uhh...I was wondering about, um, training? I guess? You-um-you never said that we would-but you know more about how to use this than me, so—” Monkey King stops listening after the third stumbling sentence, because  _ yawn _ , he gets the point,  _ whatever _ .

“Sure,” he interrupts.

He turns around before he sees the look on Kid’s face. He doesn’t see Kid go quiet and look down at his feet, as if ashamed to think he could speak.

“We’ll start with some katas. C’mon.” He waves a hand, and Kid follows.

The first katas are a mix of easy and hard ones, because he needs to gauge the Kid’s current martial skills. Once he establishes a baseline, he can figure out where to start Kid from.

Kid is clumsy, unfocused, and not at all sure-footed. He stumbles through the easy katas and looks lost when shown the hard ones. Monkey King barely bites back sighs of frustration, because he can’t get mad when learning was the point of the exercise. He just wishes his successor had some semblance of martial arts training. It would make things a little easier.

He’s about to tell Kid to take a breather, ‘cause no point in continuing when nothing is getting done, but then he watches a little longer and sees something...interesting. Concerning? Interesting.

Kid is determined. Monkey King watches him take a deep breath— _ he sees young eyes glance his way, and Monkey King forces his gaze to drop from interested to bored— _ and reset his stance, stumbling and fumbling with the same kata over and over and over and  _ over _ until something snaps.

It’s not a triumphant moment, when Kid gets the kata right. Instead of bending like bamboo and finding his groove, Monkey King watches his successor push through like a hand through a wall, sharp and frustrated instead of excited and relieved.

“Good work,” he says, because you should reward success, right? 

Kid brightens like the sun under the praise, soaking it up like a sponge, and Monkey King watches, and wonders.

Kid goes through the next kata with that same grit and determination, occasionally glancing at Monkey King for something like approval, and Monkey King throws up some lazy thumbs up, leaning back on his cloud and munching on peach chips. He does throw out a suggestion or two when Kid looks like he’ll snap again, but it seems inevitable, as if failure is a non option.

At this point, Monkey King doesn’t have it in him to tell Kid the point of the exercise, to tell him that some katas weren’t meant for beginners and some were, and that he was just testing Kid’s skills. And, hey, if Kid gets the easy and hard katas down on his own, less work for him, right? Why teach someone something if they can teach themselves? That’s how he learned things, after all.

Again, he thinks he can hear his master screaming, off in the distance. He shrugs to himself.

“Done!” Kid shouts from below, and Monkey King watches him perform the eight katas he’d shown Kid earlier in perfect form. Well, not perfect, but close enough.

“Nice! We can do more whenever you show up next, but, uh, that should be good for today.” No point in overwhelming the Kid, after all. Plus, eight katas ain’t too bad for a first day. “Hey, do you got a schedule? I kinda have a life, you know. Would be good to know when to expect you.”

He doesn’t mean to let it come out as biting as it is, but Kid hunches down on himself and looks so terribly guilty that Monkey King immediately regrets asking. He opens his mouth to say something that could soften the blow, lighten the mood, but Kid speaks up before he can.

“Um, I talked to Pigsy, and he doesn’t mind me taking half shifts on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. We’re not as busy then, and some Sundays, Pigsy goes out shopping, so I won’t be missing work then,” he shrugs.

Monkey King nods. Three days a week doesn’t seem too bad, all things considered. Gives him some free time, 4 days where he doesn’t have to worry about watching out for the Kid.

“Sounds good.” He grins, eyes closed with his arms back behind his head. He expects Kid to leave, but the shuffling of feet do not turn into footsteps moving away from him, and Kid doesn’t say goodbye or move for a good few seconds.

Right before he opens an eye to see what the issue is, Kid speaks.

“Um, how do your clones work?”

Well, now, isn’t that a change of subject.

“Figured you would know, considering your story chronicle thing.” Monkey King sits up and stretches, eyeing Kid with a half curious, half pensive glance. 

Kid fidgets, and something flickers on his face. Guilt, fear? Kid isn’t good at lying, but he’s very good at hiding. “Yeah, but I’ve-uh-I mean not all the stories are a hundred percent accurate, right? And, like, I was just wondering how you use them, so when-so if I need to use them I know how, you know? Extra me’s are pretty useful, right?” 

Kid doesn’t seem to notice the slip ups, but Monkey King does. He’d wondered if Kid would get all of his powers right off the bat or just the basics. Makes him wonder if he should try for transformations, see if Kid can shapeshift.

One thing at a time. He hops off of his cloud, picks a strand from his hair and blows on it. An identical copy of himself appears and Kid’s eyes sparkle with interest.

“Let’s see yours,” Monkey King gestures for Kid to try, and he gets that same flicker of something. Guilt is definitely there, and nervousness. He doesn’t know why. Shame, he thinks he’s getting?

He glances at the few wounds on Kid’s body with a new perspective.

Kid eventually plucks out a strand and blows, and an identical copy of Kid appears. Monkey King raises a brow. 

“Nice,” he says with a grin, and his clone leans in to take a closer look.

Kid’s clone hunches down on himself, anxious, and Kid quickly dispels the clone, nervous. Monkey King dispels his own with a shrug. 

“Um, how do you use your clones?” Kid asks, voice hiking up into a panicked lilt that seems to be expecting Monkey King’s response to be hard and mean.

“I mean, I use ‘em a lot as cannon fodder in battle. Bullets I guess? They can’t take as much of a beating as I can, but they pack enough of a punch or can be enough of a distraction that they help me get the upper hand in battle. Not that I need them often.” He’s pretty good at fighting villains without them, thank you very much.

“Do you ever have them...stick around?” Kid asks, and Monkey King raises a brow.

“No? The world only needs one of me. I’m pretty great, no need for a second one stealing my spotlight.” He glances at the bandages on Kid, and a distinct lesser amount of hair on the left side of his head. “Why?”

Kid almost full on flinches at the question, gripping the staff like a shield again, as if one wrong thing said would lead Monkey King to attack. It puts Monkey King on edge. What’s got the Kid so antsy? It’s not like Monkey King tries to be scary around him. He’d like to think his laid back persona would give off a less threatening vibe.

“Uh-I-no reason!” Monkey King bites back a sigh at the obvious lie. “A-anyway, I promised Mei we’d go to the arcade, and I’m gonna be late. Bye!”

Kid runs off, and Monkey King fights the urge to shake the story out of him. 

Something happened, and the Kid got hurt. Even with Kid being vulnerable, he’s still got a bit more durability than most mortals, so it would take something big to damage him. Why wouldn’t he talk about it? Is Monkey King really that unapproachable?

He wrestles with that and takes a deep breath. No. He’s not going to be that close to the Kid. Kid’s got an entire other family to talk to about his problems. If it’s important, if it’s Monkey King related, he’ll hear about it. If not, not his problem.

Surely the Kid will talk to someone about the issue. He’s got the chef—Pigsy?—and the scholar, and that dragon girl. He has people. Monkey King isn’t in charge of the well being of his successor, he’s just making sure Kid doesn’t die, and Kid’s fine. Just a few scratches and bruises.

But he’s mortal, and vulnerable, and a bit thick, Monkey King knows. So he wonders. And sits back. If Kid needs help, he’ll ask.

_ Won’t he? _

The question still has no definitive answer.


End file.
